Under Arrest
by Elmethea
Summary: Sirius rushes to Godric's Hallow on that fateful night and discovers James and Lily dead. When he founds out the culprit, he tracks down his school friend, intent on revenge. One-shot.


Sirius crumpled the piece of parchment in his hand. _"James and Lily attacked..._" What the hell kind of message was that? No details, no mention of whether they were hurt or... Sirius shook his head, he mustn't think of that.

He pushed the pedal his motorcycle down farther and it roared like a dragon, soaring high over the muggle town of Bristol. Sirius had been kicking back that evening, having a right nice pint in a bar up in Scotland, when the note had come by owl. It wasn't signed, but Sirius hadn't thought much of details when he jumped on his bike and set off for Godric's Hallow. Christ, his best friend might be... no.

The motorcycle spat out a trail of sparks with a wheezing cough: Sirius hadn't put enough gas in for the journey from Scotland. He pulled out his wand and pointed it clumsily at the tank, keeping his other hand steering the bike. He cast a refilling charm and the bike immediately bucked and increased speed so swiftly that Sirius almost slid off. He gripped the handlebars more tightly, ignoring the crumpled note he was wrinkling.

He flipped another lever and the motorcycle gradually began to descend, its roars subsiding to contented growls. Sirius steered the bike around the war memorial at the center of town and, as he turned it towards a lane, the bike bumped down gently onto the pavement. He drove it down the lane, coming to a house on the edge of the little town.

Sirius's heart sank: the charm that hid James and Lily's home had vanished, revealing that the upper half of their cottage had been blasted away. He tumbled off the bike, and ran toward the gate.

"_At least there's no Dark Mark," _he said to himself, and that thought helped to loosen the constriction that was developing in his chest. Sirius pushed open the gate and ran up the gravel path. The door hung open, and the lights in the hall were still on.

"JAMES!" he roared, tearing into the cottage. He peered around the back of the door, some small part of him praying that his friend was playing a joke and waiting to jump out and yell, "Gotcha!" But James was not behind the door. James was...

"JAMES!" Sirius fell to his knees, barely registering the sharp pain that accompanied these actions was only slightly dulled by the hall carpet. He felt tears begin to pour down his face as he crawled, unsure of his own unsteadiness, towards the man lying on the carpet.

James Potter lay quite still; his eyes open and empty. He was deathly white, his black untidy hair contrasting sharply with his pale face. He lay on his back, spread-eagle, his blank eyes wide and horrified.

Sirius was sobbing, and he clutched James to his chest, rocking back and forth. He called his friend's name over and over, but James did not respond, did not crack his infamous grin. For what seemed like hours, Sirius sat there, lost in his terrible, wretched grief. In reality, he sat there only a few minutes before a small noise startled him. He looked up and scanned the house.

"_Might still be some of the scum around," _he thought, pulling out his wand and standing over James's body protectively. Then the sound came again, and Sirius realized that it was coming from upstairs.

"Lilly?" he called hopefully. Reluctantly leaving James, Sirius crept up the stairs. The lights were out up here, and it looked like an explosion had torn apart the left side of the building. "Lilly?" he asked again, moving among the rubble. Half of a dresser, scorch marks covering most of it, blocked most of the hallway. _"A last desperate barricade?"_ he wondered. The small noise came again, urging Sirius over the wrecked dresser and along a stretch of hall, black with soot, and to a door that had been blasted off its hinges. With a start, Sirius realized that this was where Harry's nursey had been.

Lilly lay on the floor, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Her dark red hair spilled across the carpet, her hands still flung out in an attempt to stop her attacker's advance. Sirius made to kneel beside her, but the noise came again and he finally recognized it. It was a child's crying.

Sirius stepped over Lily and to the charred remains of the crib. He dug through the rubble feverishly, ignoring splinters and the soot that smeared his hands. There was a tattered baby blanket; Sirius' hand hovered over it, suddenly afraid of what he'd find beneath it. A fresh bout of weeping started up, and Sirius tore aside the fabric.

Harry Potter lay curled up beneath it. He stared up at his godfather with solemn green eyes from under his down-soft black hair. The infant ceased his wailing and smiled, reaching up his tiny hands toward Sirius. The man picked him up, a bit awkwardly, and crooned to him.

"Hush, little one," he soothed, "I'm here... it's Uncle Sirius." Harry gurgled happily and nestled closer to Sirius's chest. The man held him and looked around at the skeletal remains of the room; furniture legs stuck up in the air like charred bones, and two of the walls had been blown apart. The stars also shone down on the pair of them, the roof having been blasted away in the explosion.

"How did you survive this?" Sirius breathed. The sound of voices came from below, and Sirius was on his guard again, his wand out and ready, the other hand clutching Harry to him protectively. He snuck down the hallway and skulked at the top of the stairs. Harry, however, had no notion of secrecy. He made an inquiring sound and the voices ceased.

"Who's there?" a gruff voice demanded. Sirius held his breath and gripped his wand, peering around under the banister. A large shape was looming over James's body.

"Get away from him!" Sirius bellowed, springing down the stairs two and a time and brandishing his wand. The Stunning spell he shot at the intruder bounced off the hulking figure and shattered the remaining lamp, which went out and left them in complete darkness.

"Blimey, Sirius!" the voice rumbled, sounding a little shocked. "Shoulda known I'd see ye here."

"Hagrid?" Sirius allowed the relief to seep into his voice. "Hagrid, they're dead... James and Lily..."

"I heard," the gamekeeper murmured and a giant, trash-lid sized hand patted Sirius comfortingly. "Dumbledore sent me."

"Dumbledore?" he asked blankly.

"He said Harry might be alive," Hagrid continued, not noticing Sirius's bundle. "Have yer seen him?" The man held up his precious burden ; Harry looked up at the half-giant seriously and began to suck his thumb.

"Oh my," Hagrid said, thunderstruck. "How'd the little tyke survive?"

"What happened?" Sirius demanded, allowing Hagrid to gently lift Harry from his arms.

"You-Know-Who himself, from what I un'erstand," the gamekeeper said. Harry reached up one of his little hands and touched Hagrid's beard, facinated. The half-giant grinned with delight and cradled the infant in his immense arms.

"Voldemort?" Sirius exclaimed. Hagrid went white and straighten and little to quickly, knocking a hole in the ceiling.

"Don't say his name!" the gamekeeper whispered hoarsely.

"Dumbledore said Voldemort did this?" Sirius pressed. Hagrid nodded, glancing to his left and right, as though afraid the Dark Wizard might pop out of the shadows at the mere mention of his name.

"Listen, we should go, Dumbledore's 'specting me," Hagrid mumbled, ducking as he went through the front door.

"What do you mean, 'we'?" Sirius ran to keep up with Hagrid's large strides. "You aren't taking Harry, are you?"

"Dumbledore's orders," Hagrid shrugged.

"But I'm his godfather!" Sirius managed to get in front of Hagrid and block his path. The gamekeeper looked decidedly uncomfortable and he shifted weight uneasily.

"I'm sorry, Sirius but those are..."

"Dumbledore's orders," Sirius growled. Then he realized something with gut-punching aclarity, "Hey, what about Dumbledore's protections? This place is supposed to be hidden! Dumbledore was supposed to keep them safe!"

"Don't ye go accusing Albus Dumbledore in fron' of me!" Hagrid shouted, puffing up with indignation.

"JAMES IS DEAD!" Sirius bellowed back. "MY BEST FRIEND IS DEAD AND I WANT TO KNOW WHY!" Hagrid fell silent then, severely cowed.

"I'm not sure I'm the one who can tell you that," Hagrid mumbled, looking down at his over-sized feet.

"Try me," said Sirius, crossing his arms.

"Well, Dumbledore said something abou'... abou' some sort of secret keeper and something abou' 'revealing'..." Sirius felt his stomach drop and his body go cold.

"Sirius?" Hagrid asked worriedly.

"Yeah," he responded, more out of instinct than actual acknowledgement. "Yeah. Listen, you can take my bike."

"Really?" Hagrid asked, delighted.

"Yeah." The gamekeeper moved towards the gleaming black motorcycle and looked over it admiringly.

"It's a wee bit small," he commented. Sirius, in a dream-like state, pointed his wand towards the bike.

"_Engorgio_," he ordered, and the motorcycle swelled to a large enough size to accomodate Hagrid.

"Thanks!" Hagrid said sincerely, swinging one leg over the bike and kicking it alive.

"No problem" Sirius said, emotionless. "Take care of Harry." Hagrid said a few more things, but Sirius had stopped listening a while ago. He raised his hand in farewell out of mere habit as Hagrid mastered the motorbike and took off in a cough of exhaust fumes.

Peter Petigrew. The Secret Keeper of the Potters' home in Godric's Hallow. James and Sirius had chosen Peter together, each believing that the whole world would assume Sirius would be the Potters' Secret Keeper. It had been a joke, really. Sirius had thought it would be great fun; James had been a little more practical and said that the Fidelius Charm was twice as likely to work if no one suspected the real Secret Keeper.

And he had betrayed James. Peter had given away the secret to Voldemort. And now James was dead.

A blind rage seized Sirius; a curtain of red fell over his vision so that he could no longer see Godric's Hollow. No, it seemed to him that he was standing in a street full of Muggles.

He _was_ standing in a street full of Muggles. Sirius, through blind anger, had Apparated into the middle of a road filled with bustling people, who seemed incredibly unaware that the war had just ended; indeed had breathed its last with James Potter. How could these Muggles not understand that with James the best of everything in the world had died? How could they go about their way, shopping or God knows whatever it was that Muggles did for fun.

A small man was pushing his way through the crowd ahead of Sirius. He was slightly balding, but still fairly young. He was heavy and as he squeezed past Muggles with multiple, 'Excuse me's, Sirius could tell that he had a high-pitched wheezing voice.

"PETER!" Sirius howled. The plump man turned and his eyes widened with recognition and fear. Peter Petigrew ducked and bolted, but Sirius followed him, pushing people out of the way. The Muggle's gave indignant shouts that turned to screams as he pulled out his wand. He wondered briefly what they saw in his hand.

Peter burst out onto the street itself and began running, unimpeded, up the road.

"HE WAS YOUR FRIEND!" Sirius yelled, pushing past a grandmotherly-looking woman and tearing out onto the street. Peter looked over his shoulder, seemingly in spite of himself. One of those Muggle machines, cars, Sirius thought they were called, nearly ran Peter over. The street was so narrow that the plump man had no where to turn, except back towards his pursuer.

"Sirius," he wheedled. "It's so good to..." Sirius shot a jinx at Peter; it missed and struck one of the car's wheels, causing it to puncture and air to whistle out of the hole.

"How could you?" Sirius panted, coming to a stop a wary distance from Peter and the car.

"You've no idea how... how persuasive the Dark Lord-" Peter dodged as another jet of light streaked over his head and hit a shop window. The glass shattered and rained down upon the passing Muggles, who screamed and raised their hands protectively over their heads.

"You should have know..." Sirius paused, catching his breath. His dark eyes were cold as he considered the whimpering man before him. "You should have know I would find you. And kill you! _Avada-_!"

"_Lacarnum Inflamarae_!" Peter squeaked. A large ball of fire shot out of his wand tip and flew towards Sirius, who ducked aside. He could feel the hairs on the back of his head scorch as the fire flew over him and struck the engine of a parked car. The explosian was magnificent, sending Sirius and most of the Muggle's on the street flying through the air.

Sirius collided with a wall and went down. His wand had been blasted from his hand in the explosion and Sirius had no way of finding it among the rubble. Muggles lay everywhere, groaning. A few lay perfect still, despite the face that their clothes were on fire.

A trickle of hot liquid poured down Sirius's face. He lifted his hand to the injury and felt blood seeping from a gash across his forehead.

Peter stood in the middle of it all, completely unharmed. It was the first time Sirius could ever remember Peter looking tall or powerful. The least of the Marauders was in complete control of the situation.

The little man pointed his wand towards his own hand and clenched his jaw, preparing for something painful. Sirius watched, dazed, as Peter severed his little finger from his hand. Peter clutched the stump of his finger, to caught up in his self-inflicted pain to notice that Sirius had stood and was limping towards him.

Sirius's foot accidentally kicked a pair of broken spectacles. The granny-like lady he had pushed past earlier lay on the curb, quite dead. But the sound alerted Peter, who turned and raised his wand.

When he saw who it was, Peter gave a shaky sort of smile, then he began to shrink rapidly.

"NO!" Sirius scrambled forward when he saw what Peter was doing, but he was too late. The rat scampered under the remains of a lamp post and disappeared. Sirius saw his wand laying nearby and he swooped down upon it, picking it up. But as he straightened, there was a series of pops as wizards Apparated onto the sight.

"GET HIM!" Sirius shouted, pointing his wand toward where Peter had disappeared. He dove forward - then crashed to the ground as someone placed a full body-bind hex on him.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he demanded, struggling against his bonds. "It was him! He killed James!"

"Sirius?" a growling voice asked. Sirius wiggled around until he was on his back and met Mad-Eye Moody's electric blue eye.

"He killed him!" Sirius yelled again, struggling with his invisible bonds. "Now I'm gonna kill him!"

"Sirius Black, you have the right to remain silent," a voice, its owner somewhere out of sight, said. "Anything you say can and will be used against you -"

"What are you doing? Why are you arresting me? It was him, he killed James!"

"- in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney -"

"HE'S GETTING AWAY!"

"- one will be appointed to you. Do you understand -"

"WHY DON'T _YOU _UNDERSTAND?"

"- these rights as they have been read to you?"

"NO!" That made the Aurors pause.

"You do not understand?" they asked.

"No, I don't understand why you're letting Peter get away! I'm gonna kill him!"

"You were intending on killing someone, and thus caused this damage and loss of life?"

"No..."

"Didn't you just say you were, and I quote, 'gonna kill him'?"

"Well yeah, but..."

"You're under arrest."


End file.
